| Dempsey Jeffs fights for a shot at the basket. |
When Emery defeated Carbon a couple of weeks ago, region basketball looked good for success by the Spartans. But two losses last week have left Emery in a three-way tie for the third spot in region. Emery lost at home to North Sanpete 69-57 and lost for the second time this season to Juan Diego, this time on the road and this time by a score of 54-37.
Against the Hawks, Emery simply could not finish the game. Emery led 19-17 after the first quarter as Dave Justice led the Spartans with 7 points. The quarter saw 11 lead changes and two ties as the two teams battled each other evenly for eight minutes.
Emery played well at the start of the second quarter as they ran to a 33-23 lead as Dempsey Jeffs scored 7 points and Karson Jensen added 6 points. But with things going well, Justice had to sit with a bloody lip and the lead dropped to 33-30. The half ended with Emery up by 5 at 38-33.
The Hawks outscored the Spartans 15-10 in the third quarter to tie the game and then the Hawks could do no wrong as they blew out the Spartans in the final period to grab the win. Emery was outscored 9-21.
Emery played well on offense but in this game they had trouble playing defense as North Sanpete got to the basket time and time again for the easy score.
Justice led the way with 20 points, 6 assists and 2 rebounds. Karson Jensen added 10 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks. Jeffs had 14 points and 2 rebounds as the Spartans put up good numbers. Kyler Edgehouse had 6 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals while Jordan Gee added 5 points, 3 rebounds and 6 steals. Tyler Killpack scored 2 points.
Against Juan Diego, Emery led after the first quarter 12-8 and at the half 23-21 but then the Soaring Eagles’ second half sent the Spartans home winless. They outscored the Spartans 15-6 in the third quarter and 18-8 in the fourth quarter as Emery only managed 14 second-half points.
Justice was the only Spartan in double figures as he had 15 points. Edgehouse had 6 points, Jeffs, Gee and Nevin Jensen all finished with 3 points, Karson, Tyler and Kyle Johansen had 2 points and Cameron Hansen had 1 point.
Emery now has a make or break week as they host Delta on Wednesday and Carbon on Friday.